


Charmed (But Not Really)

by whoovestrings



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Kravitz was a bard, M/M, Post 11th hour, Sweet flips is mentioned, pre suffering game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-12 04:51:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11729859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whoovestrings/pseuds/whoovestrings
Summary: Taako and Kravitz go on a date, and Kravitz learns that he cares more about Taako than he previously thought.AKA, I drew taakitz on a kareoke date and somehow it evolved into this





	Charmed (But Not Really)

**Author's Note:**

> I took many creative liberties when it came to the D&D and TAZ universes, specifically regarding bard magic, and technological development

Taako sat on the couch in the living area of his shared dorm. Kravitz was meant to meet him here five minutes ago and if he didn’t hurry up, Merle and Magnus would come back from training and he’d have to explain what the grim reaper was doing on the moon. He waited for his stone of farspeech to ring and Kravitz to call saying that he was “on a job that was taking longer than expected, see you soon dear” when a familiar rift in space opened beside him and Kravitz stepped out, smiling in his still-forming skin.

“Hail and well met, my man” Taako said, turning around to face Kravitz, “you get caught up with work?”

“The Raven Queen saw me rushing paperwork and asked me what I needed to get to so fast,” he admitted.

“And did you tell her about us going on a date?” Taako asked.

“Long story short, yes,” Kravitz said, “But that’s not important. You haven’t told me where we’re going tonight.”

“We’re going planetside,” Taako said, and then looked Kravitz up and down, “actually, you aren’t going anywhere looking like that. We’re going to a restaurant, not a funeral, follow me.” He took Kravitz’s hand, and lead him up the stairs to his room, unlocked the door, and headed over to the closet.

“Why are we-” Kravitz was cut off by taako throwing a set of clothes at him. Inspecting them, he saw that it was a fairly plain tunic, a black jacket, and gray trousers. He looked up at Taako, confused.

“It’s not that much of a change from what you’re wearing, but it’s better than a three piece suit and cloak.” Taako shrugged. “I mean, wear what you want of course, I’m just making a suggestion.”

“I mean, I can just-” Kravitz snapped his fingers, more for dramatic effect than anything, and he was in a replica of the outfit. He tossed the clothes back to Taako, they probably weren’t the same size anyway.

“Dang, Taako said, catching the clothes and putting them back, “and here I was hoping I could see you get changed” 

Kravitz smiled slyly, “well, I'm sorry for depriving you of all this.” He gestured down his body, “Thanks for the outfit suggestion though.”

“No problem homie,” Taako said, “Now we gotta hurry up before the rest of the boner squad comes homes and sees you here.”

They managed to get out to the transportation dome without being seen by anyone they knew too well, and were greeted by Avi, who looked a little reluctant when Taako asked if they could go to Neverwinter.

“I mean, the Director tries to limit trips down to earth that aren’t mission related.” He said, and Taako thought for a second.

“What if I told you that I’d found some information about a relic, and that we needed to go down there, pronto?” Taako tried.

“I’d ask why the Director hasn’t told me about it, and also why you aren’t bringing Merle and Magnus”

“It’s secret, and also totally hot off the press, gotta go, right now.” Taako said. Avi looked skeptical, then looked at Kravitz, who was watching the conversation in front of him knowing approximately zero of what was going on.

“And who is this, and why haven’t I seen him before?” Avi asked.

“I’m Kravitz, nice to meet you, I’m… new here”

“Uh huh? Repeat what I say. Bureau Of Balance. Voidfish. Phoenix Fire Gauntlet.”

Kravitz repeated them, visibly confused as to why he was being asked to do so, and Taako sighed and shook his head. He focused for a moment, hoped Avi failed the wisdom saving throw, and then took over the conversation.

“Avi, my man,” He began, and internally whooped when he saw Avi’s glassed over eyes, “we have some _really important_ stuff to do planetside, so if you could just lend us one of those there spheres and let us go down to Neverwinter, that’d be great.”

Avi nodded, and went to the controls. Taako turned to Kravitz and grinned, leading him into the transportation sphere. Taako took the seat next to the break, and invited Kravitz to sit next to him.

“Charm Person” Taako explained, “Works like, well, a charm.” He sat back and waited for the ball to launch, and looked over at Kravitz, who had started to smile at the absurdity of the whole situation. The trip down was less eventful, with Taako extremely focused on pulling the break at the right time, and Kravitz looking out the window for most of the journey. When they got down, they were on the outskirts of Neverwinter, and Taako tried his best to remember where the restaurant was that he was headed.

They set off down the streets, and after a few paces, Kravitz took Taako’s hand, and Taako pretended to be less affected than he was, because he was a grown elf goddammit, not a schoolchild with a crush.

“Why was Avi asking me if I could speak?” Kravitz asked, and Taako thought it over for a second.

“Well, there's this thing called the Voidfish, and it erases people’s memories, and I guess it doesn't affect you because you’re de-” Taako stopped himself.

“Don’t worry, I know I’m dead, I came to terms with it a while ago” Kravitz chuckled.

They fell into a comfortable silence as Taako lead Kravitz down the streets of Neverwinter, until they finally arrived at the restaurant. They got their table, sat down, and looked over the menu.

“You know,” Kravitz said after a while, “I always forget how good the Prime Material plane looks, the Astral plane really pales in comparison.”

“Really?” Taako said, “I thought you come up here all the time for jobs?”

“I mean, yeah,” Kravitz clarified, “but I don’t really take the time to admire the surroundings, Necromancers and Liches normally hide away in caves and the like, and when I’m just collecting passed souls, I normally just appear for a few seconds, and take them to the astral plane.”

“Also, you said paperwork? Do you need to fill out forms for the dead?” Taako asked, and Kravitz nodded. 

“Yes, we need to file who dies, when, where, how, you know, the usual. It helps us keep track of everyone, and we can know if there's, say, a disease around a particular area so we can, well, not exactly help, but we like to give some warning.”

There was silence for a few seconds, before Taako asked “If you bring over souls to the astral plane, who brought you over?”

“Me?” Kravitz said, “oh boy, I haven't thought of _that day_ in ages.”

“I’m sorry, if that’s a sore subject, I can-” Taako was cut off by Kravitz’s gentle laugh.

“It’s not a sore subject, as I said, I came to terms with my death a while ago. No, I can’t remember the name of the reaper that brought me over, I’ll have to ask The Raven Queen at some point.” Kravitz saw the confused look on Taako’s face, “There's more reapers than just me,” he laughed, “why, I’m only a few hundred years old, the concept of death far predates me.”

They talk about other things, about the places Taako had been whilst on missions, Kravitz commenting on whether he’d been there or not, and occasionally saying that they should go there sometime. He laughed when Taako suggested that Refuge would be a lot better if he had “cold hands over here” to regulate the frankly ridiculous temperatures.

\----

Their food came and went, and before long, Taako and Kravitz found themselves walking out of the restaurant. Their date wasn’t quite done yet, as there was one more place that Taako wanted to go before they left. They walked for a few minutes before stopping in front of a bar, and Taako lead Kravitz inside.

“There’s a good karaoke joint in here. You said you liked music at one point, right?” Taako said over the background noise of the bar. Kravitz wondered if he ever did tell Taako of his musical background, then figured that he must have for him to make that kind of assumption. Taako asked a guy by the stage if they could have a go at singing, and the guy said that there was a waiting list wasn't long, they'd come at a quiet time. Kravitz almost immediately noticed his mistake.

“Taako I haven't listened to music in-” he paused to think “-quite a while now, I don't know any of these songs.” It was true, as he flicked through the booklet that contained all the songs that the bar had, he couldn't really place any of them in his mind. He could probably improvise some of them, but it would be rather obvious that he didn't have a clue.

“Hey, it's okay Krav,” Taako said, “they must have some older songs, and-” he glanced over the list and his eyes lit up “-hey, I saw that you were focusing on the songs playing in the restaurant, that's that one there, and I think that's the… yeah, this band has backing vocals over literally every word so it's impossible to get lost.”

“And you, Taako?” Kravitz asked, Taako make a noise of acknowledgement. “I assume you'd be singing too?”

“Oh, you bet I am, babe, I've got my song picked and I'm in the queue ahead of you. You want to sit down and get drinks first? We've got like five songs to get through first.”

They got drinks and sat down at the bar, listening and reviewing each song as it was sung. From a slow melancholy song sung by a tiefling, to what Taako rolled his eyes at and informed him was a song from a movie soundtrack sung by a young half-elf, Kravitz had thought that everyone sung rather well. Eventually, it was Taako’s turn, and he sauntered up to the stage, taking the microphone from the half-elf, who looked extremely flustered.

The music that Taako was singing to was upbeat whilst not being too fast. There was a few seconds where the instrumental played, the instruments adding over each other gradually, and Taako nodded his head and swayed his hips slightly to get a better feel of the beat. He began singing and Kravitz stopped wondering if he had ever heard Taako sing before, because if he had, he would have remembered it for sure. The lyrics were about the narrator pining after a man, and after a few seconds, Kravitz realised that Taako was trying to keep eye contact with him. The song went on and kravitz grew more and more flustered at what he could only assume was Taako’s way of expressing emotion: hiding them in performance.

Kravitz realised the song was ending as Taako lowered the microphone, the instruments faded out, and the other voice in the song said a few lines that Kravitz could vaguely recognise as the man the song was aimed at returning the narrator's feelings. He walked up to the stage and took the microphone from Taako, and as their hands brushed, Taako laughed.

“I was gonna ask if you liked it, but you're not cold as ice right now, so I think I got my point across.” Kravitz absentmindedly put a hand up to his face and sure enough, he was blushing, though thankfully not visibly.

He made himself focus on the song, trying quite desperately to remember the song and how the lyrics fit with the music. The song started up, in stark contrast with Taako’s song in that it was quite a lot slower, less upbeat but not to the point of being sad. He remembered that he was almost a conductor for a reason, and managed to sing in time with the music without much of a hitch, perhaps stalling a beat when the lyrics took a second too long to appear on the screen, but that could be put down to nerves. The song was again about love, but slower, more definite, and kravitz had to stifle a laugh when the song mentioned “feeling life” or even uttered the word “bones”. He swears, he didn't pick this on purpose, it just happened to be the only one he knew.

He was so focused on getting the song right, that he forgot to look out at the crowd, and when the song did finish, he slowly lowered the microphone to find an entire bar staring at him with a certain look in their eyes that he couldn't quite place. It wasn't dislike, he hoped, but even so, he slowly put the mic down and crossed the room to Takko, who also had that same vacant look, and his eyes looked almost glassy- and oh shit now he knows what he’s done. He tries to think of the least painful way of doing it before whispering “sorry Taako” and lightly punching his shoulder. It seemed to do the trick and Taako shook his head before looking around, confused.

“You charmed me?” He asked incredulously, and Kravitz realised he may be in more trouble than he had hoped.

“I think I might have, yes,” Kravitz admitted sheepishly, “As well as the entire bar. Whoopsie daisies.”

“How?” Taako asked, looking around to see that yes, all but a few of the patrons did seem to be sitting there vacantly.

“I keep forgetting I still have my magic from when I was alive. I keep forgetting what I can do with it.”

“And what kind of magic is that,” Taako asked, and Kravitz was sure he was just genuinely curious at this point.

“Bard magic,” kravitz said, smiling as Taako's face lit up in realisation, “I normally just use it to intimidate, you know, I think you must have heard me in the Miller’s lab?”

“Wait, that was you singing that spooky Crystal Kingdom bullshit?” Taako was almost laughing at this point, “how come your voice doesn't sound like that now?”

“Well, now I have vocal chords and a mouth so I'm not just a spirit making noise,” Kravitz explained, “and yeah, that song was basically me reading Maureen and Lucas Miller’s bounties but with flair. Sometimes intimidation can get you the edge in winning someone's soul.”

They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, watching as the bar slowly got over their charm spell - It didn't take long given the lack of intent, and painfully wide spread of it - before Taako spoke up.

“Have you ever written any music, Kravitz?” Taako asks, and Kravitz nods.

“Well, of course I've written music. Have I ever gotten any of it sung… maybe, I can't remember, it was too long ago. It was never that popular and honestly, it was back when I was still alive so it's one for the history books now.”

Another minute of silence as Taako took in this information.

“And Krav, how long ago did you say you died?”

\----

Taako had a plan. It perhaps wasn’t the best plan, and his chances of success hinged on far too many factors, but he was still confident as ever as he exited the elevator that lead to the voidfish’s chamber. As suspected, Johann was there, looking as bored as ever.

“Hey my man,” Taako said, “you’ve been here the longest out of all of us, right?”

Johann nodded, “Yeah, I was one of the first people The director hired, after Lucas and Davenport, why?”

“Where would a guy go to get some…. Information around here.” Taako said, cryptically. “Some… history information.”

“Well.” Johann thought for a while, “The Bureau has archives but they’re kinda empty. I guess you could ask The Director or maybe even the Deals Warlock, he seems to know a lot.”

Taako thought over his options. All things considered, Garfield would probably know, he might even have exactly what he was looking for in the endless aisles of Fantasy Costco, but on the other hand, everything with Garfield came at a price. He thanked Johann and decided that either way, he was probably going to have to ask the director, so headed over to Fantasy Costco.

When he got there, Garfield seemed confused as to why Taako was here alone, as he usually only visited after missions with the other dos horny boys, but Taako quickly shut him up. He was here for a reason.

“I need info,” Taako said in what he hoped was a cool, yet slightly intimidating tone, “Where would I find music from say, 250 years ago?”

“Well…” Garfield pretended to think about it. “I could tell you, but not for free.” Taako rolled his eyes, he saw this coming. “No, no, not gold. Let's say we trade info for info. Why do you want this music?”

Taako thought about it for a moment. Should he tell the truth? No.

“I… Just want to listen to some music, my man” Taako tried, lamely. Gods, he failed that bluff check by a mile. 

“I don't think I belive you on that one” Garfield said, and Taako resigned to telling the truth. 

“I need to impress a guy.”

“Yes?”

“A really hot guy… who I am dating?”

“Why this music in particular?”

“He wrote it…” A blank stare from Garfield, “because he lived 250 years ago because he’s the grim reaper. I’m dating the grim reaper, is that enough for you!?”

Garfield smiled triumphantly, and Taako regretted every decision he had ever made that had lead him up to this particular moment. Garfield told him about the museums in Goldciff, and Taako walked out, belatedly realising that now that he told Garfield, the whole BoB campus was sure to know within the hour. Not that he was trying to keep his relationship with Kravitz a secret, he just would prefer if Magnus and Merle found out on Taako’s terms, not through gossip that would be inevitably twisted and changed unrealistically.

He was actually going to go to The Director this time, he didn't think Avi would let him near the transportation dome without permission now. He stepped into The Director’s office, and before he could say anything, she raised a hand to stop him.

“So what’s this about the grim reaper?” She asked.

“Garfield told you already!?” Taako asked, wondering how that was even possible.

“No,” she said, “Avi told me yesterday, Killian and Carey told me a few weeks ago, I’ve seen you around the Bureau with him. You’re really not good at hiding it.”

“Alright, alright, you know,” Taako sighed, “Why do you need to talk to me about it?”

“Well Taako, I’m not going to prevent you from entering a relationship with anyone, in or out of the Bureau,” She explained, “I’m just concerned, is all. If I am to believe what the others say, he was trying to kill you, and he’s the reason that Merle lost his arm.”

“Thats fair,” Taako admitted, “but he realised his mistake and he didn't kill us. Obviously I haven't died ever, as evident by the fact that I’m still standing here.” The Director looked away, but Taako couldn't place why. “And anyway, he even let No-3113 live, and anyone who bends the laws of life and death to help me is a good guy in my books”

The director smiled, “Well, either way, I hope this doesn’t mean you’ll be slacking off in your training.”

Taako rolled his eyes. “I did have free time before I got a- before I started dating Kravitz, you know”

“Did you?” The Director asked, mock surprised, “Well, we’ll have to fix that right away. No Taako, you are more than a capable enough wizard, It’s important that you’re happy. Anyway. You came into my office for some reason, so what is it?”

Ah yes, why he was actually here. “Well, I was wondering if I could go down to Goldcliff any time soon. I gotta go somewhere.”

“Well,” Lucretia thought for a moment, and looked over a schedule on her desk “If it’s not urgent, there’s a group going down in a few days. You could go along with them.”

“That’d be great, thanks Lucretia,” Taako said as he left, ignoring The Director’s protest that he shouldn’t call her that.

As he suspected, when he got back to the dorm, Magnus and Merle had heard the gossip, and he had a similar conversation with them that he had with The Director just minutes prior. He thought Merle would be a tad resentful, but actually admitted that “if he makes you happy, he must not be all bad” and that he rather liked his soulwood arm, so even that wasn’t enough to intervene.They also said that they were kind of clued in to the whole situation when Magnus heard the distinctive noise of a stone of farspeech ringing, Taako going “oh, that must be Kravitz” then answering the call with “Hey hun, how you doing?”

Days passed. Nights passed. Just to be obnoxious, Taako refused to show up to training, instead practicing spells on his own and teaching Angus on the side. He did visit the Bureau archives just in case, but came back empty handed. Johann was right, it was pretty abandoned, and Taako suspected that most of it had gone to the voidfish. Eventually though, he was down in the Goldcliff library, several books surrounding him and wishing there was a faster way of looking through them without reading them. He was flicking through an index page when a whisper from behind made him jump and reach for the umbrastaff.

“Hey, Hey there pal.” Taako looked up to see a familiar dragonborn face smiling back at him. Carey was here. She was with the others on actual BoB duty, so she must have slacked off whatever she was meant to be doing and followed him here. Nothing really out of the ordinary.

“So, what are you doing over here then?” Taako asked, turning back to the book.

“The Director needed a team to go down to Goldcliff for whatever reason. That was boring, but I saw my good friend Taak-” Taako raised an eyebrow at her “-my good coworker Taako and thought that whatever he’s doing is probably a lot more interesting, which leads me to this: Why are you here?”

“I’m researching.” Taako said simply, putting down the book and picking up another. Carey looked over the titles curiously.

“Composers of the fifteenth century? Taako, why do you-” carey gasped, her voice dropping to a whisper, “is this about reaper boy?”

“Maybe.” Taako said, in a tone which implied “Absolutely.”

“Here, it’ll be faster with two people searching” Carey said, picking up a book and looking through it, “who are we looking for?”

“Kravitz” Taako said, then realised he should be more specific. “Mac Kravitz. Possibly Mackenzie?”

Carey started looking through the books with him, and at one point scaled the bookshelf to reach some that neither of them could reach. They sat there for close to half an hour, the list of books they’d looked through growing longer and longer. They talked occasionally, and every now and again one of them would gasp when they saw a name similar to Kravitz’s but then turned out to be a false alarm. It was only when there was only two or three books left, that Taako looked up at Carey.

“I think I found him.” Taako said. He was reading a book of old bands that mentioned artists and composers they’d worked with. “Page 136... Lost At Sea... the band wasn’t composed of arcana users, but on their album “Alive”, they collaborated with bards such as the aspiring composer Mackenzie Kravitz, now more known for his works being revived and covered by solo artist Axel Muir- Holy shit Carey I think we found him.”

“Now we just have to find these guys’ music” Carey said, picking up some of the books before Taako took them, levitating them over to the returns box. “I think there’s a music store somewhere around here, and I think I’ve heard of Lost At Sea and Axel Muir, so they can’t be too obscure.” 

 

Finding the actual bands didn’t turn out to be too difficult, and the music store did stock the albums they were looking for. Taako and Carey stood around the music player. They might as well listen to the music now just in case they’d gotten it wrong.

“Which one do you want to listen to first?” Carey asked.

“I’ll listen to this one,” Taako said, holding up the the Lost At Sea album, “He sings in this one, so we’ll know if it’s actually him or not.” He put the record on the player and looked on the sleeve. Song six was the one they were looking for. He skipped ahead and waited for the song to play. The music quality was grainy and the whole song far too old fashioned for Taako’s taste. He suspected it’d be more so for carey, as she wasn't near being alive when it was released. There was a few minutes where they listened to the music, an unfamiliar voice singing its way through the first verse and the chorus.

And then the second verse hit and the voice changed, and it was crackly, and different, but unmistakably Kravitz. Carey looked up at Taako expectantly, who had his hand over his mouth. Carey chuckled.

“That him?” she asked, and when Taako nodded, said “that’s gay, dude.”

“Carey, you are currently wearing Killian’s flannel as a jacket, you can’t say anything about gay” Taako protested.

“I mean, you got me there.”

\----

When Kravitz received a call on his stone of farspeech from Taako, asking him to come back to his dorm, he wasn’t exactly expecting this. It was dark in the reclaimer’s living area, and Kravitz momentarily wondered if he had gotten the wrong dorm. He stepped fully into the room and looked around. This was definitely the right place, judging by the items littered about the place that had been hastily cleared away. Even with his darkvision, he couldn't see where Taako was, so when Taako greeted him from outside his room, he jumped slightly before turning and smiling.

“Has there been a power cut or something?” Kravitz asked, but taako shook his head and gestured Kravitz over with a “come here” motion. Kraviz was confused, but headed up the stairs anyway. When he got there, he could see Taako more clearly. He was dressed in a knee-length dress, and had a cropped jacket over it, more fancy than his usual attire.

“Are we going anywhere?” Kravitz said, “let me guess, not the time for reaper get-up?”

“Nah, we’re staying here,” Taako said, “and I think your suit will fit the occasion just right.” Taako tuned to his room and used prestidigitation to light the various candles around the room. “I know you said you didn’t know many songs, but I think I’ve found some that you might recognise.” He walked over to a music player and set up whatever record he had on it. The music crackled into life, and Kravitz tried to think back, see if he remembered this music from somewhere, but no. He looked at Taako, confused.

“I’m really sorry Taako, but I don-” The music changed from the introduction to the actual first song, and the words caught in Kravitz’s throat as he heard his music playing from the record player. It wasn’t exactly how he first wrote it, and the vocalist was doing a lot better than he did, but it was his. He turned to Taako, who was smiling at Kravitz’s reaction.

“How did you manage to find this?” Kravitz asked, crossing over to taako and taking his hand.

“Well, let me tell you my man, I had to do some searching” Taako said, “and I may have accidentally let the entire Bureau know that we’re dating, but honestly, I think it was worth it.”

“Taako, can I, can I-” Kravitz struggled to find the words, “can we dance?”

“I mean, that depends, my man. I can, can you?” Taako teased, “Of course we can.” Taako wrapped his arms around Kravitz’s waist, and rested his head on his chest. Kravitz put his arms around Taako’s shoulders, and stepped backwards, hoping Taako would follow suit. He did, and soon they had gotten into rhythm with each other, slowly dancing their way around Taako’s room.

“Hey,” Taako said, when the song faded out and the next one began, “Do you think if you sung this song, it’ll have the same magic as your performance a few days ago?”

“I don’t necessarily want to charm you Taako” Kravitz said, “I was thinking I could do that without magical assistance.”

“Can I at least hear you sing?” Taako asked, “A crackly old record isn't really the same as the real deal.

Kravitz debated it for a few seconds, then began to sing. The song was rather short, but still upbeat and Kravitz’s singing started as soft mumbling but after a few lines, he got into it fully. Taako took a step back, and took Kravitz’s hand when he held it out for him. Kravitz lead him into a dance that was a lot more lively than the last, and he could see Taako smiling as he danced, until on the last line, Kravitz, now slightly out of breath, dipped him.

Kravitz looked down at the elf in his arms, at how the soft candlelight made the flecks of gold in his eyes stand out, and the glitter on his dress sparkle. For a moment, Kravitz’s entire world existed there in that bedroom, with the man who had gone out of his way to find his music. Kravitz wasn't entirely sure if he was just starved of positive interaction with living people, if it was the break in Taako's uncaring, uninvested facade, or that he was just overjoyed at hearing his music playing after so long, but he really couldn't focus on much other than Taako in that moment.

They made eye contact, then Kravitz’s gaze momentarily flicked down to Taako’s mouth. Taako didn't react, so he whispered “may I?”

Taako looked back, blankly. “May you what?” He could see the beginning of a smile creep onto Taako’s face though, and he soon followed it up with “of course you can kiss me, you big dork.” Then Taako stood up fully and did exactly that.

They had kissed before, but never, Kravitz thought, like this. They had kissed at the end of dates, short and sweet goodbyes, they had kissed around the Bureau, pretending to be sneaky and laughing about it. Once, things had gotten rather heated when they were on the couch in the reclaimers dorm, before Taako had admitted that he wasn't fully comfortable with that yet. This was definitely different. Taako’s hands laced through Kravitz’s hair, and Kravitz's switched from being around Taako's waist to gently resting on his hips.

After a few breaths, or rather, what Kravitz would assume was a few breaths, Taako pulled away. Kravitz had joked about Taako being charmed, but by the gods he was sure it was the other way around. He laughed lightly and rested his forehead against Taako’s.

“You're wonderful,” Kravitz said.

“I know,” Taako said, his smile slowly growing more smug, “and don't forget beautiful and charming and witty and great at magic and-” he dissolved into giggles as Kravitz rolled his eyes at him. 

“But yeah,” Taako said once he had calmed down, “you're pretty wonderful as well.” He paused a moment, then looked over Kravitz’s shoulder, back at the record player.

“I also found some other old music of yours,” Taako said, “a collaboration with a certain Lost At Sea?”

Kravitz thought back, then cringed at the memory. 

“Do you actually have that?” He asked. He'd never liked that song much, and he sang so much worse when he was actually alive. That didn't matter though because Taako was already at the record player, changing the disks and finding the right track.

“Hey, it's nothing to be ashamed of, babe.” Taako said, “I like it at least.”

Kravitz listened to the music, and heard the singer lament about lost love and wrong times and sad thing, but as he looked at Taako, hopeful smile lighting up his face as he watched Kravitz’s reaction to the music, Kravitz knew that he really had left all of that behind.

**Author's Note:**

> The song Taako was singing during the karaoke scene was That Man by Caro Emerald, and Kravitz's was Technicolour Beat by Oh Wonder.
> 
> Kravitz's music has more of the vibe of the album Pretty. Odd by Panic! At The Disco, specifically She Had The World and I Have Friends In Holy Spaces


End file.
